THE JOURNEY SO FAR

Yesterday was a blast. Scum of the Earth threw a street party to launch a building project.

OK, so building projects sound more like something the "established" churches would be doing. S.O.T.E may not be your typical church, but Mike Sares, senior pastor at SCUM (after drying off from the dunking tank), said that this congregation knows what it's like going through life feeling like they don't belong anywhere. We all need to be able to identify a time and place where we did business with God, and where we knew for the first time we really belong to Him. Scum needs a home.

The party was wonderful. I got to help two chefs all Sunday morning preparing, vegetable plates, salads, barbeque chicken, home made caramel apples, popcorn and caramel corn. They even brought in a snow cone maker. All afternoon volunteers poured through the place to get the party ready.

Then there was the band, Born in the Flood, (brilliant!) that gave a free to SCUM concert in the searing heat (over 100 degrees!) The wading pools, water balloons, sprinklers and the dunking tank helped somewhat. But the cloud cover at about 6:30 really helped the most.

Some folks came for the first time. As one lady helped us in the kitchen, she told me she'd always been made to feel "uncomfortable" in church, but she'd found her place today.

May it be so.